1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanism and method for performing integer divide in a computer system.
2. Related Art
Most computer systems include a mechanism for performing an integer divide operation wherein an integer dividend is divided by an integer divisor. Conventional integer divide mechanisms operate by iteratively performing shift and subtraction operations on the dividend and the divisor. Such conventional integer divide mechanisms are described in many publicly available documents, such as John L. Hennessy and David A. Patterson, Computer Architecture - A Quantitative Approach, (Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, Inc., San Mateo, Calif., U.S.A., 1990), which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety.
As will be appreciated, shift and subtraction operations are time consuming and computationally expensive. Consequently, integer divide operations as performed by conventional integer divide mechanisms are time consuming and computationally expensive since they involve the iterative performance of shift and subtraction operations on the dividend and the divisor.
Thus, what is required is a more efficient integer divide mechanism and method.